Internal-combustion engine



F. H. GILE.

rNTERNAL coMBusTloNzENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED- MAR. 23, |916.

I 1 l l JE' TUR:

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

FRED HENRYv GILE, 0F CLIFTONDALE, MASKSACHSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO GEORGE K. WOODWORTH, TRUSTEE, 0F BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS.

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE.

Orignal application led April 5, 1915, Serial No. 19,265.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Serial No. 86,263.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FRED HENRY GrLE, a citizen of the United States, and a res1dent of Cliftondale, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have 'invented a. new and useful Improvement in Internal- Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specificatio My invention relates to internal combustion engines and more especially to automatic checkvalves for use in such engines of the combined pump and motor cylinder' type.

An illustrative embodiment of myinvention is shown in the accompanying drawing which represents a vertical longitudinal section, certain parts being shown in elevation,

` of an internal combustion engine provided with valves embodying my invention.

In the. particular-drawings selected for more fully disclosing my invention, 1 represents a frame having a horizontal crankshaft 2 suitably journaled therein and supporting the cylinder 3, the ends of which in the present instance, are provided with a number of parallel fuel passagesor liutes 4l, et arranged lengthwise in its bore and communicating with and extending into the combustion chambers A' A respectively. While I do not limit myself to the number of flutes that may be employed I have fou-nd that from sixteen to twenty give good results. No hard and fast rule can be. given as to the number of the Hutes that will give the best results under all conditions of operation. They are not mere passageways or channels from the space between the pistons to the combustion chamber; but on the contrary they serve the additional function hereinafter more fully setforth of effecting a perfect or substantially perfect mixing of the charge of fuel and air. Their number depends in a way upon the volume of the cylinder and their total cross sectional area depends upon the cross sectional area of the intake port. There must be a relatively' large number of flutes so as thoroughly to subdivide the charge and effect the complete mixing of the same. The total cross sectional area of the flutes must be such, due regard being had to the cubical contents of the cylinder and the cross sectional area of the intake poi-t, that they will impose sufiiside of the Arods engage the arms 17 which are rigidly cient restraint to the passage of the gas therethrough as to enable the latter to acquire a relatively high velocity during such passage. Arranged to reciprocate within the cylinder is a hollow piston or sub-piston consisting of two heads 5 5 rigidly connected by the rods 6 herein shown as three in number, and the lower head is connected to or integral with the hollow piston-rod or sleeve 7, which in turn is secured to the cross-head '8 guided in the ways 9 on the engine frame. Arrangedg yto reciprocate within the' cylinder and within the hollow piston is a plunger or power-piston 10 connected to or integral with the piston-rod 11 which passes axially through the lower head of the sub-piston and the hollow piston-rod 7, and is secured at its lower end to the cross-head 12 guidedV by the ways 9. The pitma-n 13 connectsthe cross-head 12 with the crank 14 to transmit the power developed in the cylinder to the main crank-shaft.

Pivotally connected to the studs 15 arranged on opposite sides of the cross-head 8 are the connecting rods 16, one on either pitman 18, and said connecting connected with the rock-shaft 18 journaled in the engine frame,-said arms being ar. ranged on opposlte sldes of said pitman.

Integral with or rigidly connected to one of the arms 17 is a shorter arm 17 to which is pivoted a connecting rod 19 engaging the outer end of the bell-crank 2O pivotally connected to the frame at 21. Y

The two arms of the bell-crank are bifurcated and the rolls 22, 23 are journaled be tween the forksgof the upper and lower arms respectively. The cams 24, 25, rotating with thev main shaft engage the lrolls 22, re-

spectively. Either Vone of the two cams is cut to communicate the proper motion to the arm of the bell-crank with which it cooperates, and then the other cam is so cut that the two rolls are always held positively i-n contact with their respective cams, there! by eliminating the necessityfor the usual spring arrangement employed to maintain firm contact between a cam audits follower.

The cylinder is provided with exhaust passages 26, 26 controlled by the inwardlyopening valves 27 27 normally held on their respective seats by the springs 28, 28 which surround the valve stems and have their ends bearing against the outer walls of the exhaustipassages and the collars 29, 29 on the valve stems. Cooperating with ports in the cylinder-head extensions 3() are the outwardly-opening automatic check-valves 31,v

31', each held on its seat by the relatively light springs 32, 32 interposed between the collars 29, 29 and the ends of their hollow stems33, 33, which, as shown, are guided in the -bosses f3.l, 3 4. r

It vwill beA understood of course that the` exhaust valvesmay be operated by any suitable mechanism and in the present case I.. have illustrated a simple form of valve gear- 3 ing comprising continuously rotating cams operatively connected with the power shaft.

The tappet 35 secured to the rock-shaft 36 strikes the lower end of the stem of the valve 27, thereby forcing the same upwardly from its seatat the proper times, and said rock-shaft 36 is suitably connected through the rock-lever 37 and shifting-rod 38 to one of said continuously rotating cams which cooperates with a collar on the-lower end of said shifting-rod, said cam not appearing in Fig. 1 because it is secured to the cross-shaft 41 directly behind the cam 40. The valvey 27" israisedfrom vits seat at the proper times by said cam 40, whichcoperates with the collar 40 on the lower end of a short shifting-rod which engages the lower end of its valve stem. It will be understood of course that-the vvalves are closed bytheir respective springs 28, 2 8 as soon as the cams pass their coperatinge'lements.

The cross-shaft 41 to which said cams are secured may be connected with the power-shaft by any suitable means.

The fuel inlet 42 located A-substantially midway between the two ends'of the cylinder is connected by a pipe 42 to any suitable source of fuel.v

'It will be understood `of course that the foregoing detailed description comprises various elements which in the precise form shown in the drawingsand described herein are not essential to my invention and that these parts may be considered simply as typical of the necessary elements of an mbody, which in the present instance is the cylinder-head, ina number of relatively or fuel passages.

small streams, they number of said streams being suiiciently large to effect such a thorough, intimate and complete mixing of the charge that substantially complete combustion of the same in the cylinder will result on ignition.

An explosion of the compressed charge in either combustion chamber acts directly on one of the heads of the sub-piston and by the latter is, communicated to the powerypiston with which such head is then in conent No. 735,964, issued, August 11, 1903,

whichl has a flying piston somewhat similar in form to the hollow piston of the present invention, but not controlled positively nor arranged for.'v positive relative movement with respect to the power-piston; and it is 'highly desirable that they shall remain in contact until the end of the powerstroke of the sub-piston or during a substantial portion of such power stroke.

It will be obvious that the means governing the movement of the hollow piston must be carefully designed to prevent any relative movement with respect to the powerpiston until the hollow piston shall have nearly reached the end of its stroke and i particularly until the trailing head of the hollow piston shall have covered the inner ends of the adjacent set of flutes. The reason for this will be obvious from an inspection of Fig. 1 in which the parts are shown in the position occupied immediately prior to ignition in the combustion chamber A. Should the power-piston begin to move away from the upper head 5 of the sub-piston before the latter covers the inner ends of the flutes 4, a portion of the effect of the explosion will be exerted against the lower face of said head 5 in opposition to the force exerted on the upper face thereof.

The hollow piston is governed or conv rt-rolled throughout the entire cycle by the while the power-piston isv continuing its descent, the sub-piston is slightly recalled until the upper face of its lower head 5 is a little below the inner ends of the flutesfl, in which positionthe cam surfaces are concentric with the power-shaft and consequently the sub-piston is held stationary until the power-piston reaches the end of its stroke.

While it will be understood that the several moving parts may be variously adjusted and timed, I prefer such` adjustment and timing as will produce the following cycle:-

Then both pistons are at the upper end of their strokes, the upper head 5 of the sub! piston being in Contact with the powerpiston, as shown in Fig. 1, and the charge eom-..,-

pressed in the combustion chamber A, gthe valve 27 being closed and the valve 27 open or about to open, the charge is fired andthe resulting explosion causes both pistons to descend at the same rate of speedA and without any relative movement until the sub-Q piston nearly reaches the bottom vof the cylinder driving the `burnt gases of the preceding explosion out ofi-the combustion chamber A and through the exhaust passage 26C.

The sub-piston is now recalled until the upper face of its lower head 5. is slightly below the inner ends of the flutes 4 and the lower face of its upper head 5 slightly above the fuel inlet 42, in which position it remains stationary until driven upwardly by the neXt explosion in the combustion chamber A.

The power-piston l() continues its descent and, after uncovering the fue] inlet 42, creates a partial vacuum within the trailing end of the hollow or sub-piston and draws a charge of fuel through-said inlet' into the space between its upper face and the lower face of the upper head of said hollow piston. At the same time the plunger or power-piston 10 compresses the charge in the advancing end ,of the hollow piston, z'. e., in the space between its lower face and the upper face of the lower liead5 of said hollow piston, a kcharge of fuel having been drawn into said space on the `preceding upstroke of the pistons, and a portion of this `eliarge so `compressed by said plunger passes through the flutes l into theconibustion chamber A, thereby completing the scavenging of the latter.

The valve 27 liead in a plurality ofv relatively small i that such automatic check-valves greatly instreams.

now closes and the powerpiston continues its downward stroke fur- `27 opening prior to the explosion. Both the flutes 4' and the upper face of its lower head 5 is slightly below the fuel inlet 42 whereupon it remains stationary .until driven downwardly by the next explosion in the combustion chamber A.

.y The power-piston continuing its ascent draws-a charge 'of fuel from the inlet 42 into't theIg-,trailing end ofthe hollow piston, a.;,gfthe-fspace"between its own lower face and. theupper faceoflthe lower head 5, and compresses the charge in the advancing end of said hollow piston, e., the space between its-'own *upper face-and the lower face of the upper head-.5. The scavenging of the combustion chaniberfA is completed by a portion lof the compressed charge passing thereinto b wayof the flutes 4, whereupon the valve 2 is'closed and the continued upward stroke of the power piston drives the rest-of the fuel charge through said iiutes into saidcombustion chamber and completes the compression thereof.

Ignition then occurs again and the cycleis repeated, there being one explosion at each end of every stroke or two per revolution of the crank shaft.

In the foregoing description of the cycle no reference has been made to the outwardlyopening check-valves 31, 31, which are re ton uncovers the flutes inveither-end of the cylinder, the space between such head of said .hollow piston and. the vpower-piston,

i. 0. the advancing "end of the hollow piston, is brought into communication with the combustion .chamber by way of .said flutes before the power-piston begins to compress the charge in said space, and, therefore, inasmuch as there is usually a partial vacuum in said space unless the -engine is running at 1 full load, it is desirable to provide automatic check-valves such as shown-at 31, 31', or check-valvesof any other suitable construction, to prevent any portion of the exhaust orthe outside air from being drawn through the combustion cliainberinto said space by way of the flutes. I have found crease the efficiency of the engine.

willbe understood that various modifications of the construction herein specifically described may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 19,265, led April 5, 1915. Having thus described an illustrative embodiment of my invention, Without, 110W-- ever, limiting myself thereto, what I claim and desire t0 secure by Letters Patent is- In an internal combustion engine, a cylinder provided with an exhaust passage, an

inwardly-opening valve for said exhaust passage, an outwardly-opening automatic check-valve coperating with said valve, a

spring for holding said inwardly-opening 15 subscribed my name this 16th day of March, 20

FRED HENRY GILE.

Witnesses:

GEO. K. WooDwoRTH, E. B. ToMLINsoN. 

